Broken
by Chrono.clockwork
Summary: He was her ace, her best friend, and she wasn't sure she what to do without him there. Rated T for character death D:


**A/N:** Oh god, another project. Kill me, go ahead XD Or I'll end up doing it myself.  
>So, I frequent the Gears side a lot, but I never posted a story for Resident Evil, which is a shame because that's the greatest series ever . I grew up on Resident Evil (I'm not kidding you. Seriously, I'm not.) How I went without writing a story for it for this long kind of amazes me.<br>This is a one-shot right now (And a whole bunch of shit, at that), but I will probably expand on it. As you can tell, I'm a huge CLeon fan (Ada can go burn in hell.) I was crying while writing this XD I'm such an emotional fool  
>Anyways, enough babble from me. I hope you enjoy.<p>

**-=V=-**

"Leon, Leon please, stay with me!"

Leon Scott Kennedy was dying, and Claire didn't know what to do.

She held him gently, one hand pressed to the wound in his chest. If she didn't at least wrap it, he'd bleed out quickly, but she didn't have anything she could use and _god dammit he was dying-_

"Claire," he rasped out, opening his eyes. She paused in her ranting (she had to keep talking or she'd loose it) and looked down at him, his eyes meeting hers.

"Don't talk, Leon," she said after a moment, swallowing past the lump that had lodged itself in her throat. "Save your energy, okay? The others will be here soon, and they'll have help for you." He only looked up at her, blood and dirt smudged across his pale face, his eyes so blue in a sea of red. With a small grunt, he lifted his hand and rested it over hers, startling her.

"Claire, we both know-"

"Don't even go there! Don't you dare go there!"

Both of them paused, staring at each other for the space of a heartbeat, eyes wide. Claire could suddenly read everything in that baby blue gaze, and she had no doubt that he could read everything from her, too. If he was going to die, there would be no more secrets between them.

"You can't," she finally said, willing her voice not to give out on her. "Okay? Promise me, promise you'll pull through this so you can go see Sherry again, and bust me for eating too much strawberry ice cream, and… and…" She couldn't help the tears that finally welled up, pursing her lips together to hold back the sobs that threatened to slip out. This wasn't the first time someone she knew had died, it wasn't the first time she'd ever had to _watch_ as someone slipped away. People died, and she knew that. But this was Leon, her Ace, and she couldn't even begin to imagine life without him. Not even if she tried.

"Talk to me, Claire," he said, his voice faint. "Tell me why I can't leave." She bowed her head for a moment, her hand still pressed to his chest, then nodded, taking a deep breath.

"Because… because Sherry invited us to her piano recital, and we promised we'd show up. Because you promised to come over and watch all the horror movies I had, and then go out to watch the new Redemption movie, the one with all the vampires." He managed a small smile at that, closing his eyes.

"You and horror movies…"

"You promised that we'd go to that new eatery near my apartment as soon as we got the chance," she continued on. "And I know you wanted to try the steak because Chris and Jill went there that one night you got called out and Chris wouldn't shut up about it." She pursed her lips, pausing as she checked how he was doing. Her heart sank when she realized his pulse was only growing weaker, and his breathing was becoming slower and shallower, and her fingers were only becoming darker with his blood. He tightened his hand over hers, the slightest of pressures to keep her going. Part of her knew he couldn't hold her hand any tighter.

"Leon, please," she managed, her voice a soft whimper. "Please hold on…"

"C'mon, Claire… Keep talking…" She shook her head, pursing her lips, but the pointed look he gave her prompted her on.

"You can't leave because…," she began, searching for more reasons. "Because…" She paused again, her heart beating painfully in her chest. There were so many things unsaid between them, so many moments they had lost. He was a top-notch government agent, and even her job with TerraSave kept her busy- it had been so long before they even got back into contact with one another, so many years where she had wondered how he was, or if he was even alive. So many nights where she'd had nightmares of this exact event coming to pass.

"You can't leave because… I just got you back, Leon," she choked out, her voice trembling, and she could tell by the look on his face that she had startled him. She continued on, fighting past the tears that threatened to spill over (she hadn't cried in a long time. She was surprised she still could.) "After Raccoon City, I lost you, and then back at Harvardville, just when I thought I'd gotten you back, you slipped away again." She closed her eyes, turning her hand so that she was gripping his. "And now you've finally come back, and please don't leave me Leon," she sobbed, as his hand began to loosen in hers. "You promised we'd do things together, you can't leave me." She was crying now; nothing could stop the tears that streaked through the blood and dirt caked onto her face. "You're my best friend, my Ace, and…"

"Claire," he breathed, but she didn't let him say anything more, wouldn't let him waste his energy.

"Please Leon," she managed, past the torrents of tears. "I…" It hit her like a semi-truck then, and she realized that it was more then just the fact that they had survived a nightmare together, more then the fact that he'd pulled through for her again and again. It was more then just a friendship that kept her by his side.

"Leon, I love you," she said, and although she was still crying her voice wasn't shaking anymore. "I love you so much, and I don't know what to do without you." She sat back on her heels, her stormy eyes drifting over his face. "Back in Raccoon, I was just looking for Chris, I had no idea what I'd stumbled into- and just when I'd thought I was going to die, you showed up out of nowhere and saved me, and you looked so cool even though you were probably scared too…" She lifted his hand and clasped it tightly in hers, blood trailing down her arm. "And when I was trapped at Rockfort, all I could think of was contacting you because I knew you'd be able to get Chris for me, I knew you'd pull through and… and I…"

"Claire," he managed, pulling her hands back down to his chest. He looked up at her, and for a second it was easy to believe he was going to make it. Leon had always been so steady, a constant check to Claire's unlimited energy and fire. Even dying, he hadn't lost his cool. "I'm… sorry. I broke my promise."

"It's gonna be alright, Leon," she whispered, even as his eyes dropped closed and his heartbeat slowed. She didn't know if she'd said it for his sake or her own. "It's okay, it's not your fault…"

"I…Love you… Claire…," he whispered, his voice so faint she thought she might have been imagining things. "Love you too…" And then his hand went limp in hers, and his breathing stopped, and Claire was pretty sure her heart had broken into a million pieces the moment his heart stopped beating. She squeezed his hand tightly in hers, lifting it to her cheek and holding it there.

When Chris and Rebecca came charging in, that's where they found her, soaked in the blood of the man she'd loved.


End file.
